The presidents of Castile and León and Galicia, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and Alfonso Rueda, demanded a “solidarity” financing model and investments in infrastructure to correct territorial inequalities.
The two regional leaders participated this Tuesday in the Ancares Forum in Ponferrada (León) during which they analyzed the common challenges of the Spanish northwest and the two communities. The meeting, organized by Diario de León and Diario El Progreso, is part of an initiative that aims to provide a platform for analysis looking for a future for northwest Spain and resolve common problems between the territories that have the Ancares Mountains as their border.
The event was hosted by the director of Diario de León, Joaquín S. Torné and by the director of El Progreso, Alfonso Riveiro, and the mayor of Ponferrada, Marco Morala, and the deputy general director of Banco Sabadell, Pablo Junceda , participated. reports Ep.
Alfonso Rueda stated that the regional funding model is governed by “basic solidarity” this allows “in particular Galicia and Castilla y León” to provide public services “as in the rest of Spain”.
For his part, Mañueco indicated that the Government “must look at” all the territories since, according to his argument “There cannot be a two-speed hemiplegic Spain, in which one part grows very quickly and another part more slowly. “Being patient does not mean looking away,” continued the Castilian-Leonese politician regarding the investments requested from the central administration in terms of infrastructure.
In this sense, the Galician leader spoke of the reconstruction of the Castro (León) viaduct that connects Galicia to the plateau, about which he declared that “we had to take it seriously and put it into cruising speed.” “So much,” he continued, ironically about the political will to repair infrastructure, “as if instead of falling the viaduct that connects Galicia to Castile and León, it was the viaduct that connects an autonomous community that everyone can have in mind.” .
Regarding the collapse that occurred this Sunday on the AP-66 which interrupted the circulation of vehicles between León and Asturias, Mañueco recalled that The Council offered its help to the Central Executive to “accelerate the clean-up as much as possible”but the answer was that they had enough resources to act quickly. He also highlighted the need for the projects of connecting roads in the Community, among which he cited Ponferrada – Orense and León – Valladolid, to be “a definitive reality”.
Atlantic Corridor
Rueda defended the Mediterranean Corridor project “as long as the Atlantic Corridor also advances” because otherwise, he assured, “we will have an unbalanced two-speed Spain that we cannot afford”.
The Galician leader has called for the project to be taken seriously since the meeting held in Santiago de Compostela two years ago to discuss the Atlantic Corridor, during which “It seemed like everything had started and then absolutely nothing had been done”.
Among his demands, the President of the Council included the call Manzanal and the Ruta de la Plata railway junction, investments that he considered “essential” and for which he asked to be hired “seriously”.
In this sense, he declared that if the president of the Principality of Asturias, the socialist Adrián Barbón, was present at the forum, “he would agree to demand the same investments” as those demanded by the “popular”, demonstrating in his eyes that it is “not a question of political colors”. “We need a commitment from the Spanish government regarding highways and railways in the northwest of Spain”, concluded Fernández Mañueco, who described this section as “essential and inalienable”.
